Method of making tie plate bearing rail anchors



u 1964 J. J. GALLAGHER METHOD OF MAKING TIE PLATE BEARING RAIL ANCHORS Original Filed May 8, 1958 INVENTORI JOHN J. GALLAGHER ATT'Y wat r United States Patent p 3,136,048v METHOD OF MAKING TIE PLATE BEARING RAIL ANCHORS John J. Gallagher, Denver, Colo., assignor to Poor & Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Original application May 8, 1958, Ser. No. 733,986, now Patent No. 3,059,855, dated Oct. 23, 1962. Divided and this application July 13, 1962, Ser. No. 212,501

1 Claim. (Cl. 29-417) This invention is a division of my co-pending application Serial No. 733,986, filed May 8, 1958, now Patent No. 3,059,855 granted October 23, 1962, which relates to improvements in railway rail anchors of a general class which grip the base of a rail and are adapted to abut exclusively against a vertical face of a tie plate interposed between the bottom surface of the rail and the top surface of an underlying cross-tie.

In some railway constructions, the tie plates are so positioned on their associated cross-ties that the edge of a plate to be engaged by a rail anchor extends to the vertical side face of such cross-tie. In other constructions the tie plates are spaced inwardly from the opposite side faces of the cross-ties and thereby provide a clearance space between the bottom of the rail and the top of the underlying cross-ties.

A principal object of the invention is to provide a lightweight rail anchoring device which will accommodate both of said tie plate arrangements above referred to and will insure flat abutting contact of the rail anchor with its associated tie plate throughout the entire length of the anchor device. In this connection the invention contemplates a rail anchor in which the metal is so distributed as to provide one end of the device with a hook having metal therein of greater thickness than the thickness of the under-rail portion of the anchor and the underrail portion of the anchor may have a thickness which is less than the thickness of the tie plate against which it abuts, whereby the said hook will exert a strong resilient grip on a base flange of the rail and the under-rail portion of the anchor may extend into the space which normally exists between the base of a rail and the top surface of a cross-tie when the rail is supported on a 'tie plate which is spaced inwardly from a vertical side face of a cross-tie.

Another object is to provide a lightweight anchor of the above general construction which will provide greater tie plate abutting area than is present in other rail anchors of this general class and thereby minimize the frictional wear on the abutting faces of the tie plate and the rail anchor. This object is attained by extending the ends of the rail anchor outwardly from opposite edges of the rail base to positions beyond the rail spikes employed to secure the rail and the tie plates in their proper positions on the cross-tie and thereby, in addition to increasing the area of the tie abutting face of the anchor device to minimize wear thereof, also balances the application of thrust against the rail spikes at opposite sides of the rail so as to prevent the tie plates engaged by a rail from turning or skewing about a vertical axis.

The hook-shaped jaw, in addition to having a larger cross-sectional area than the under-rail portion of the anchor, provides a vertical surface for receiving an impact force for driving the anchor device transversely of the rail to its applied position and also provides forward and rear faces of substantial area for receiving an impact force applied to the anchor if and when it may be necessary to drive the anchor lengthwise of the rail into firm abutting engagement with the tie plate. The extensions of the anchor body beyond the locking shoulder provides a large area striking face adjacent the shoulder end of the anchor, whereby impact force for removing the anchor 3,136,048 Patented June 9, 1964 may be applied to the locking shoulder. end without danger of striking and consequently indenting the adjacent base flange of the rail. 1

, A further object is to provide a lightweight anchor having the configuration above described which can be formed economically from blanks sheared from a steel bar which has been rolled to provide the unequal distribution of metal required at different locations in the anchor device.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a novel method of forming the anchor.

A preferred and practical embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a detail perspective view of the completed rail anchor shown in my aforesaid application.

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary view in perspective of a rolled metal bar from which blanks are sheared and sub-. sequently bent around a die to provide the rail anchor device shown in FIGURE 1.

FIGURES 3 and 4 are fragmentary illustrations of a machine for bending the metal blank into the configuration shown in FIGURE 1; the said FIGURE 3 illustrating the machine in its position preliminary to bending the blank, and FIGURE 4 illustrating the parts of the machine in the positions which they will assume at the end of the bending operation.

Referring to the drawings, the completed rail anchor is designated generally as 13.

The anchor includes a body portion 22 of less thickness than the thickness of the adjacent tie plate with which it abuts and is formed at one end with the hook 26 providing an upper jaw 27 for gripping the inclined upper surface of the base flange of the rail. The end of the anchor body 22 remote from the hook 26 is provided with a shoulder 34 for engaging the edge of the base flange opposite the hook. This shoulder functions to lock the anchor on the rail.

It has been customary heretofore, in the manufacture of a rail anchor formed at one end with a hook-shaped jaw, similar to the hook 26 of the present invention, to bend individual blanks by a two-stage process, for example, such blanks were partially bent in a so-called breakdown die to impart an angular configuration of the blank. The blank was then placed on the anvil portion of a wing arm machine similar to the machine shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 of the present application wherein one end of the blank was bent around the anvil member of the finishing die.

According to the present invention, the initial bending or breakdown operation is eliminated, since the present anchor is made from blanks 38 sheared from a metal bar 39 which is rolled to provide the configuration shown in FIG. 4. The rolling operation distributes the metal in the bar so that the portion thereof corresponding to the horizontal body 22 of the anchor tapers in vertical thickness from a recess or offset portion 40 to the locking shoulder end 34. The recess 40 of the rolled bar corresponds to the recess 29 of the finished anchor shown in FIG. 2 and the thick portion 41 of the bar corresponds to the hook portion 26 of the finished anchor. The several dot-and-dash lines .42 indicate the lines on which the bar is sheared to provide the individual blanks from which the anchor device is made. The part 36a of the bar 39 corresponds to the spiking flange 36 of the finished anchor and the opposite spike-receiving and tie engaging portion 37a of the bar corresponds to the extended flange 37 of the finished anchor. The individual blanks 38 are bent to their final configuration by means of a wing arm press comprising a vertically movable upper die member 42, a detent operating member 43 and a wing arm 44 pivoted at 45. The lower portion of the press includes an anvil 46, a detent 47, and a curved trackway 48, the

latter of which guides the lower end of the wing arm 44, during the downward movement of the upper die member 42.

The individual blanks 38 are positioned on the die member 46 in the manner indicated in FIG. 3. The initial downward movement of the upper die 42 and arm 43 moves the detent 47 into position to engage and hold the shoulder 36a of the blank tightly against the anvil 46, this holding position being indicated in FIG. 4 of the drawing. The said downward movement of the upper die 42 and the wing arm 44 brings its nose portion 48 into engagement with the end 41 of the blank and, by virtue of the further downward movement of the wing arms, bends the portion 41 of the blank around a projecting end portion 49 of the anvil die 46 to form the hook portion 26 of the anchor device. During the downward movement of the wing arm 44, a roller 50 carried at the lower end of the arm rides on a curved trackway 48 of the lower die assembly. This downward movement of the arm not only bends the portion 41 around the anvil 49 of the lower die of the assembly, but also turns the flange 37a in a clockwise direction to bring it into alignment with the body 22 of the blank and thereby provide the said extension 37 of the finished anchor device.

I do not claim specifically herein the structure of the blank bending machine, since this machine is disclosed in FIGS. 9 and 10 of the Laurence A. Schneider United States Patent No. 2,206,307, granted July 2, 1940. The said machine is illustrated herein primarily for the pur- "I pose of showing practical mechanism for bending the portion 41 around the die and simultaneously therewith moving the flange 37a of the blank into horizontal alignment with the body portion 22 of the blank.

I claim: A method of making rail anchors which consists in, rolling a strip of anchor stock into a cross-sectional shape to provide a rail engaging body, a jaw portion inclined relative to the body, a spike-receiving flange otfset to one side of the body at the junction of the jaw portion therewith, shearing the stock transversely at spaced intervals to provide individual anchor blanks, placing the rail engaging body of the blank in inverted position on the anvil of a die having a projecting forming end and with the jaw portion extending beyond said end, bending the jaw portion from its inclined position around said projecting end to form the completed J and simultaneously pressing the offset spike-receiving flange into the plane of the body.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,128,645 Wolhaupter Feb. 16, 1915 1,906,530 Buckwalter May 2, 1933 2,206,307 Schneider July 2, 1940 

